Alright, now that I've had time to let it sink in, I'm utterly FURIOUS with Terry and the FA. What a F***ing sham. Seriously. Complete bollocks to punish one player who admitted what he did and tried to offer explanation, even when no video or audio evidence was available, with an 8-match ban, then punish another player who very clearly called a player a 'black c**t' with video evidence to prove it, with a 4 match ban even after he refused to plead guilty.

peachesenregalia wrote:Alright, now that I've had time to let it sink in, I'm utterly FURIOUS with Terry and the FA. What a F***ing sham. Seriously. Complete bollocks to punish one player who admitted what he did and tried to offer explanation, even when no video or audio evidence was available, with an 8-match ban, then punish another player who very clearly called a player a 'black c**t' with video evidence to prove it, with a 4 match ban even after he refused to plead guilty.

I'm done this season, i think. I can't be arsed watching anymore.

It's pretty poor alright.

The FA seem to be absolutely incapable of making a good decision. Ever.

What do you think of Sterling, Suso and now Wisdom, Yesil, Assaidi, Pacheco, even Sinclair?

Sterling is top-drawer. Fantastic wee player.

Suso impressed me so far.

Yesil I haven't seen much, so I can't give an accurate assessment

Assaidi is fast. REALLY fast. good skill and I think should be working his way into the first team sooner rather than later.

Pacheco I've always rated as a youngster, not sure how well he'll do in the first team though. Doesn't hurt to have another striking option around though.

Haven't seen sinclair

Wisdom is a puzzler to me. He's looked fantastic at times and seems to disappear at other times. I'll wait and see on him.

Future looks very bright with these young lads, though.

I pretty much agree with everything said here. I haven't seen much of Yesil either, but if Borini's dip in form continues who do you reckon gets the call up? Yesil? Assaidi out wide and move Suarez to the center?

I watch via streams and games on ESPN3 (I don't have cable TV of any kind). I will usually download a game or two the day after they are played and then I'll also snatch Match Of The Day. My roommate and I watch that every week. 80 minutes and it gives you extended highlights for all the days matches. A must watch for me...Their analysis is pretty interesting too.

Livepool were excellent today save for two defensive mistakes, both coming when then game was already put to bed.

Chelsea are the team to beat this season. Incredible squad they've put together.

I agree about Chelsea being the team to beat. I don't think anyone else is guaranteed to finish in the top 4 at this stage.

It's been a good week and a half for Liverpool, and that coming after a controversial loss to United too.

I'm looking forward to Match of the Day now, especially so that I can see 'Arry try to take the credit for the win today. The Sun will no doubt be finding some way to say that by letting United back into the game that AVB has 3 games to save his job as well.

Better by Liverpool... but still frail in the back. Depsite giving up two goals well after the game was settled, they looked vulnerable for decent stretches. Still, this match belonged to Suarez, and it wasnt just the hat trick. his movement was fantastic and kept Norwich pinned back, really allowed the rest of group to move forward.

Great job by Spurs, but what a game. Spurs the faster, more incisive team up until the 60th minute. United really pushed Spurs all over their defensive third those last 30 minutes. the fact they didnt equalize is almost a mystery. Van Persies left footed miss was a shocker.

Chelsea dont look as strong as their point total indicates. Arsenal deserved better from the game, and Terry was constantly out of sorts dealing with Girouds runs. If they dont find help in that cback position I can see them starting to drop. Not out of the top four, but maybe out of the top spot.

The team that needs to be given some due right now is Everton. Simply winning matches.

Uncle Si wrote:Chelsea dont look as strong as their point total indicates. Arsenal deserved better from the game, and Terry was constantly out of sorts dealing with Girouds runs. If they dont find help in that cback position I can see them starting to drop. Not out of the top four, but maybe out of the top spot.

I almost threw my computer out the window after the second Chelsea goal. I don't believe that either team deserved to win that match. It was Arsenal's worst performance this year, and Chelsea caught a massive break when Cech forced Giroud wide enough to somehow miss his shot at the end. The first Chelsea goal I think shouldn't have counted, namely cause I saw Torres yanking on Koscielny's shirt keeping him from fully turning around, Kos should have defended that better though. The second goal came off a free kick after a foul that seemed a bit soft.

Giroud's already getting unfairly criticized for his one legitimate chance. Gervinho looked much better this week and has already equaled his goal tally from last season. Podolski looked a bit exhausted just before he was brought off. I really don't know if Mertesacker would have made a real significant difference if he had played. And now it looks as if Wilshere's return to EPL action is gonna be sooner than later after Diaby's injury.

Uncle Si wrote:Chelsea dont look as strong as their point total indicates. Arsenal deserved better from the game, and Terry was constantly out of sorts dealing with Girouds runs. If they dont find help in that cback position I can see them starting to drop. Not out of the top four, but maybe out of the top spot.

I almost threw my computer out the window after the second Chelsea goal. I don't believe that either team deserved to win that match. It was Arsenal's worst performance this year, and Chelsea caught a massive break when Cech forced Giroud wide enough to somehow miss his shot at the end. The first Chelsea goal I think shouldn't have counted, namely cause I saw Torres yanking on Koscielny's shirt keeping him from fully turning around, Kos should have defended that better though. The second goal came off a free kick after a foul that seemed a bit soft.

Giroud's already getting unfairly criticized for his one legitimate chance. Gervinho looked much better this week and has already equaled his goal tally from last season. Podolski looked a bit exhausted just before he was brought off. I really don't know if Mertesacker would have made a real significant difference if he had played. And now it looks as if Wilshere's return to EPL action is gonna be sooner than later after Diaby's injury.

I think Giroud's criticism needs to lay less at what he did with his one chance and more at why it was only one chance? Terry looked lost all afternoon, and yet Giroud rarely made him turn his head.

Still, as a non part watching the game, I saw Arsenal play quite well. I disagree on Torres goal, both parties were guilty of grabbing and clutching, as is everyone in those scrums. Noone gained an advantage over it. Torres was quite tricky with his feet there, all credit to him.

Gervinho really just slows Arsenal down. He stands over the ball too much, rarely moves off of it once he finally does decide to pass, and asaide from a finish here and there slows his Arsenal down. Gunners should also feel let down by Podolski, who rarely found the match. But still, with all that, they deserved a point. The second Chelsea goaal was class Gate, thats a solid hit by Hazard right through the attacking channel. Have seen alot of those slide in, nic a post or slide just wide this season.

Uncle Si wrote:I think Giroud's criticism needs to lay less at what he did with his one chance and more at why it was only one chance? Terry looked lost all afternoon, and yet Giroud rarely made him turn his head.

Still, as a non part watching the game, I saw Arsenal play quite well. I disagree on Torres goal, both parties were guilty of grabbing and clutching, as is everyone in those scrums. Noone gained an advantage over it. Torres was quite tricky with his feet there, all credit to him.

Gervinho really just slows Arsenal down. He stands over the ball too much, rarely moves off of it once he finally does decide to pass, and asaide from a finish here and there slows his Arsenal down. Gunners should also feel let down by Podolski, who rarely found the match. But still, with all that, they deserved a point. The second Chelsea goaal was class Gate, thats a solid hit by Hazard right through the attacking channel. Have seen alot of those slide in, nic a post or slide just wide this season.

Like I said Podolski looked gassed on Saturday, that may have played a part in his lack of involvment.

I wouldn't say Chelsea's second goal was class, but I will say it found the perfect spot to sneak past Koscielny's sliding challenge and Mannone's somewhat poor save attempt. I hope the Gunners don't let this loss get to them too much, because this was a bit of a buzzkill loss.

I'm not too down about the loss as I said at the beginning of September, Arsenal needed to get at least 7 or 8 points to make it a successful month (since the only simple game was Southampton) and they managed to get 7, though I expected the loss to be against City. It would have been nice to get the win and I'm frustrated that Arsenal could not get a point against Chelsea, I have to say it's mostly to do with a good performance by Cech.

An okay 1st half by Arsenal, if not for some good positioning by the Hammers, Arsenal could have scored at least 3 times before they finally broke through. And as luck would have it, Giroud is the one who scores off of a great low cross by Podolski. Diamme has the goal for West Ham, which came off a completely unexpected shot and massively against the run of play.

3-1 Arsenal picking up the win. Great performance off the defeat to Chelsea, West Ham's strategy backfired as they constantly kept trying to get the ball to Carroll. Walcott and Cazorla(with an epic strike) finished off the scoring. Actually before Walcott's goal, West Ham looked like the more likely to score and it was the first time West Ham left any space for Arsenal to really attack the goal. After that West Ham's defense just didn't look as good as before and Cazorla finished them off with a wicked curving strike that Jaaskelainen had no chance to stop it.

Elsewhere, City finally got a clean sheet but everyone will be talking about Balotelli and Mancini... again, Chelsea bullied Norwich, Mark Hughes tenure at QPR is on life support, and Swansea and Everton managed 2-2 draws each.

One more loss and 'Arry will be licking his chops at the prospect of being able to rekindle his favourite motto: "When I came 'ere they 'ad 2 points from 8 games."

Hughes has to be one of the most uninspiring, uncharasmatic managers in the business. I like QPR as a club though. Good ground in an interesting location. I've only been to see rugby league there but I'd imagine it'd be a good place to watch football. Pretty good fans too. I hope they stay up.

Arsenal's board has apparently revealed that Wenger will have 35 million pounds to spend in the January Transfer window to "reinforce" the squad. I highly doubt if anything, that they'll spend all 35 million, and moreso all of it for one player as that article has caused some rumors of Arsenal going for Falcao.

Is it weird that at this point last year a lot of us were thinking it was the end of Wenger? Hell there were calls for him to be sacked actually. Last year at this point Arsenal had 7 points and 4 losses and were 15th, this year Arsenal has 12 points, 1 loss, and is 7th in the league, add to that they've given up more than 5 goals(they had five conceeded by the 30th minue of the Nightmare at Old Trafford). What a difference a year makes huh?

Gatehawk wrote:Arsenal's board has apparently revealed that Wenger will have 35 million pounds to spend in the January Transfer window to "reinforce" the squad. I highly doubt if anything, that they'll spend all 35 million, and moreso all of it for one player as that article has caused some rumors of Arsenal going for Falcao.

I'm pretty sure that Wenger would need significantly more than £35 million for Falcao. Atletico paid almost exactly that for him only about a season ago. I don't even know if they'd need to sell him.Llorente or Villa would seem more likely options to me.

And as you've alluded to, Wenger has never felt the need to pay superstar prices before, it's not the way he tends to work.

Gatehawk wrote:I found an interesting "What If" question on Facebook. The question went:

If your club shut down tomorrow/didn't exist anymore, which club would you support?

Now I assume the question was referring to teams in the same league as it went on to mention that if anyone said their direct rivals then for that person to fuck off.

For me I'd probably have to say Newcastle cause they're really the only other EPL team I'm ever compelled into watching besides Arsenal.

Probably QPR, as far as the premier league goes. Good ground, location and fans. They hate Chelsea with a passion so I wouldn't have much to learn to fit in.

I also have a soft spot for Brentford as one of my best mates goes there quite often. I've been a couple of times and it's been fun. If I didn't have Spurs to spend my money on I'd go to a lot more games here in Bristol, although I'm not sure if that'd be City or Rovers.

Arsenal appear set to get a massive boost as it's reported that Jack Wilshere has been named to the squad that will travel to Carrow Road tomorrow. If anything Wilshere will definitely be back to the starting 11 for the October 30th Capital One Cup match between The Gunners and Reading.

Impressed by City today. Must be nice to have a striker of Dzeko's quality to bring on late in a game and nick two goals.

Glad Liverpool got the win. Loving the youth movement going on at Liverpool right now. Sterling is an absolute gem.

SAF is a hypocritial old git and I hate him. Ferdinand has every right to not wear that t-shirt after the farsical nature of how the FA 'dealt with' Terry. Load of old shite. No t-shirt will ever stop racism, and the FA isn't likely to stamp it out either.

Impressed by City today. Must be nice to have a striker of Dzeko's quality to bring on late in a game and nick two goals.

Glad Liverpool got the win. Loving the youth movement going on at Liverpool right now. Sterling is an absolute gem.

SAF is a hypocritial old git and I hate him. Ferdinand has every right to not wear that t-shirt after the farsical nature of how the FA 'dealt with' Terry. Load of old shite. No t-shirt will ever stop racism, and the FA isn't likely to stamp it out either.

Dzeko is really good. I wonder how much playing time Balotelli will get this season if the other strikers stay healthy. Liverpool are looking good. As well as Sterling, Suso looks the goods too.

I agree about Ferguson and the t-shirt nonsense. It seems that practically the only people not overly concerned about eliminating racism from football are the (Sweet) FA, UEFA and FIFA. And a whole bunch of numbnuts in Eastern Europe.

I've just got back from the Lane today, and am absolutely gutted that we missed out on Moutinho, not to mention Oscar. We really, really missed Dembele today. It was kind of hard to tell if Oscar, Hazard and Mata are the 2nd best midfield in football or if they exploited a poor showing from their Spurs counterparts. I suspect it was a little of both. I was absolutely gutted to find out that Bale and Dembele weren't playing. We really missed them. Huddlestone had a piss poor game. Sigurdsson looked out of his league in the first half but decent in the second. Gallas, despite his goal, had a tough game, and Friedel didn't have a great game by any means. Vertonghen is class, but should move back to the centre of defence as his lack of pace means he gets caught out in counter attacks. I think Nuaghton needs a game or two at right back to give Walker both a kick up the backside and a chance to get his head straight.

Defoe and Lennon are both playing their best football in years. I've never seen either of them put in half as much effort around the park as they have so far this season.

Despite the disappointment today I'm still pretty confident that this squad will be at least as good as last year's before the season is out.

It was an inexcusable performance by Arsenal on Saturday, I won't deny that. However I did see some reasons that may have played into the result. Chief among them is that Arsenal's players, at least to me, looked as if they were running through 6 feet of mud while wearing a lead vest, it didn't help that Arsenal had a substitution wasted when Oxlade left with an injury after coming on. Norwich looked more prepared and more energetic than Arsenal and they played better for the majority of the match. I can't really say Arsenal deserved to lose, but that's only because they did so little, they had the ball for around I think 3/4's of the game but had only 2 moments where they were remotely close to a clear chance to draw level because of the suffocating defense that the Canaries played with. What they did do certainly didn't warrant 3 points if they were going to get any points at all. They can not do this again if they want to challenge for the title. I will refuse to say it's over for them in that EPL title challenge, namely cause they were in a similar position last year, replace 1st place and Chelsea with 3rd place and Spurs, before the North London Derby, the main difference is more time to overcome the deficit and they've looked better this year than last, barring Saturday's facepalm performance.

Last edited by Gatehawk on Tue Oct 23, 2012 11:56 am, edited 1 time in total.

Gatehawk wrote:It was an inexcusable performance by Arsenal on Saturday, I won't deny that. However I did see some reasons that may have played into the result. Chief among them is that Arsenal's players, at least to me, looked as if they were running through 6 feet of mud while wearing a lead vest, it didn't help that Arsenal had a substitution wasted when Oxlade left with an injury after coming on. Norwich looked more prepared and more energetic than Arsenal and they played better. I can't really say Arsenal deserved to lose, but that's only because they did so little, and had only 2 moments where they were remotely close to a clear chance to draw level. What they did do certainly didn't warrant 3 points if they were going to get any points at all. They can not do this again if they want to challenge for the title. I will refuse to say it's over for them in that EPL title challenge, namely cause they were in a similar position last year, replace 1st place and Chelsea with 3rd place and Spurs, before the North London Derby, the main difference is more time to overcome the deficit and they've looked better this year than last, barring Saturday's facepalm performance.

Chelsea just look unbeatable this season. Arsenal's squad is decent, but can be exposed as we saw on Saturday afternoon. Arsenal will finish 3rd/4th, same as always.

Lot of Arsenal talk on ESPN right now, challenging Wenger, Gervinho, leadership and Wengers recent assertion that 4th is like a trophy.... interesting stuff really. Amazing what two consecutive losses can bring out from the media.

Uncle Si wrote:Lot of Arsenal talk on ESPN right now, challenging Wenger, Gervinho, leadership and Wengers recent assertion that 4th is like a trophy.... interesting stuff really. Amazing what two consecutive losses can bring out from the media.

Peaches... derby weekend. Massive trip to Goodison

yeah, huge. Looks like Jones will be in nets again. Thought he looked the part against Reading. Suarez will need to be on form. We desperately need a striker in January. We can't let Fellaini and the rest of that squad bully us about and force us off the passing game, but that's probably what'll happen at Goodison. Need a win, but i'd take a draw, tbh.

Watching 1st half of Arsenal-QPR. Zeroes but the Gunners look a lot better with Wilshere on and Gervinho off. Sounds obvious I know but its revealing what Gervinhos negative impact has been on the Arsenal side. Not that's he's terrible (he has his flashes) but more about how little he contributes to Wengers vision.

It wasn't a world class match between Arsenal and QPR but I'll take the 3 points any day regardless of how it happened. I will not dispute weather or not Arteta was offside for the goal, it wasn't given and we have to accept that, I know that's hypocritical of me to say since I constantly think open goal scoring chances for Arsenal's opponents are offsides myself. As for the red card, I agree with the commentators who said it was a stupid retaliation. M'Bia should have just left Vermaelen alone, but no he chose to take a swing at Vermaelen and he got sent off for it and in a way cost his team the game. I do wish Cazorla had converted that open chance before Arteta's goal but he made the shot look more difficult than it was and at least we won't be wondering on what would happen if he had scored that.

It was awesome to see Wilshere return, not just to action but starting the match as well. Early in the 2nd half when Granero accidently stepped on Wilshere's ankle and he went down, you could tell that the air in the stadium got sucked out faster than a balloon popping. It's great that he was okay and that he made it the rest of the way to the point he was subbed out. Maybe he'll play on Wednesday but I kinda doubt he'd start if he does, but I hope to see him play more against Man U.

It was a disgraceful day for referees in the EPL, big games that have been overshadowed by blown and missed calls. And to make things "better", Howard Webb, Man U's favorite referee, has apparently been assigned to the Arsenal-Man U match on Saturday.

Gatehawk wrote:It was a disgraceful day for referees in the EPL, big games that have been overshadowed by blown and missed calls. And to make things "better", Howard Webb, Man U's favorite referee, has apparently been assigned to the Arsenal-Man U match on Saturday.

Gatehawk wrote:It was a disgraceful day for referees in the EPL, big games that have been overshadowed by blown and missed calls. And to make things "better", Howard Webb, Man U's favorite referee, has apparently been assigned to the Arsenal-Man U match on Saturday.

Arteta was offside, so was hernandez. A fan if either club should go on about their day and say thank you to FAs match officials, not worry about future calls

Of all the f----ing days for a Gunner fan to be complaining about refereeing in a game that hasn't even occurred...

Gatehawk wrote:It was a disgraceful day for referees in the EPL, big games that have been overshadowed by blown and missed calls. And to make things "better", Howard Webb, Man U's favorite referee, has apparently been assigned to the Arsenal-Man U match on Saturday.

Arteta was offside, so was hernandez. A fan if either club should go on about their day and say thank you to FAs match officials, not worry about future calls

Of all the f----ing days for a Gunner fan to be complaining about refereeing in a game that hasn't even occurred...

I'm taking Arteta's goal as a good fortune moment for Arsenal who had deserved a goal with all the chances they got, but it was stupid that the goal came from an alleged offsides position.(I say alleged cause it wasn't given) At least with the Arteta incident we could probably find a reason why it wasn't give, my theory is that the refs lost Arteta in the chaos that was happening in front of the goal, Chicharito's goal there isn't much to support him being onsides just like Suarez being offsides.

I also know I shouldn't be complaining about Webb before the match, but it'd be stupid to neglect the fact that every time Webb officiates a Man U match, something controversial or noteworthy happens.

So....Gatehawk....not a good first half against Reading. I realise it's only the league cup, but man. Doesn't really look like a particularly weakened side Wenger's put out, either.

If they get knocked out here, that's not going to be good for Wenger, because the league cup is a decent opportunity for silverware for Arsenal. they won't win the CL and won't win the league. You're now left with the FA cup being your only hope, and most teams put out a strong side for that one. I understand there'll be fan outrage after another trophyless season, but will the board make any sort of change? Wenger makes them so much money, he's the kind of manager that a board dreams about having. Doesn't pay over the odds for big name players, is excellent at coaching up younger players and selling them at huge profits and plays an attractive style of football that get's them plenty of fan interest and TV time. However, the trophy drought is pretty alarming, even you have to admit. Just curious as to what the vibe is among arsenal fans at the moment.

peachesenregalia wrote:So....Gatehawk....not a good first half against Reading. I realise it's only the league cup, but man. Doesn't really look like a particularly weakened side Wenger's put out, either.

If they get knocked out here, that's not going to be good for Wenger, because the league cup is a decent opportunity for silverware for Arsenal. they won't win the CL and won't win the league. You're now left with the FA cup being your only hope, and most teams put out a strong side for that one. I understand there'll be fan outrage after another trophyless season, but will the board make any sort of change? Wenger makes them so much money, he's the kind of manager that a board dreams about having. Doesn't pay over the odds for big name players, is excellent at coaching up younger players and selling them at huge profits and plays an attractive style of football that get's them plenty of fan interest and TV time. However, the trophy drought is pretty alarming, even you have to admit. Just curious as to what the vibe is among arsenal fans at the moment.

1st half, yeah it was disgraceful. 2nd half, shades of Newcastle's comeback against Arsenal 2 years ago and Sweden's comeback against Germany earlier this month.